This is a first for Karen’s Quirky Style—Karen in drag! Were you wondering who that mustached dude was? Ha, it’s me! This is my attempt to appear as dreamy as Randy Jones, the captivating cowboy from the Village People.

Why did I take it in my head to do this, you ask? The spark was an old New York Times article my friend Lois sent me, about a $14.5 million loft in the old YMCA building at 213 West 23rd Street. The story included a link to the Village People’s 1978 video for their song YMCA, which was filmed on the sidewalk in front of the Y.

I watched the video and my mind was instantly flooded with a dance beat and memories. My arms started to form a Y-shape. I was transported back to June 1979, begging my parents to let me and my sister go to a pop concert. The Village People played at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver that year, and my Uncle Dwayne helped persuade my parents to let him take me and Kim to the show—our first concert! Wow!

We gazed in star-struck wonder, seeing the Village People on stage performing in the costumes we knew from their album cover. My younger self wouldn’t have dared dream that one day I would dance on the same New York pavement they walked on.

I’ve passed the YMCA building on West 23rd Street at least a hundred times. But I never noticed the inscribed letters carved in marble above the doorway, spelling out Young Mens Christian Association. I always hurried past the gym, rushing from the subway to New York Physical Therapy, hoping not to be late!

It’s Fun to Stay at the YMCA

The YMCA once offered housing to people from rural areas who moved into cities to look for work. In 1940, there were about 100,000 rooms at American YMCAs, more than any hotel chain. This is what inspired the song’s lyrics, such as “Young man, there’s a place you can go, young man, when you’re short on your dough… You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal.”

The YMCA built this magnificent 8-story building in 1904, and it became their New York headquarters until they moved to their West 14th Street location in 2002. Though the West 23rd Street Y is long gone, the housing offered there is still available via the building’s West 24th Street entrance, named The Christopher. An organization called Breaking Ground provides 207 units of permanent supportive housing for low-income or formerly homeless adults and persons living with HIV/AIDS.

I watched the “YMCA” video repeatedly, drinking in the details of the 1978 New York street scene in front of the Y. Now that I knew what had happened there, with the song pulsing in my veins, I decided it was imperative that I dress as Randy Jones’s cowboy for my next column and disco in front of the building.

I went to the location to check it out, and tumbled down a rabbit hole.

Gym U

I stopped by Gym U—the latest of several gym incarnations to live there since the YMCA sold the building in 2002—on my way home from work. Three handsome men at the front desk—Bryce, Max, and David—greeted me warmly. When I explained my mission, they beamed. Everyone loves that video! And the folks who work at Gym U are proud to be part of the history of the location.

I didn’t realize that I was about to be whisked into the legendary world of Gym U’s founder, the bodybuilder and Chelsea icon David Barton. Bryce and Max were eager to tell me about their boss, and they insisted I talk to Cristina Gozdalski, the general manager, who would put me in touch with David.

Soon I was sitting at the bar in the gym’s lounge, ShrUmz, chatting with a fabulously tattooed, braided bartender named Bear (who was reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and changing her life), drinking a $5 glass of wine and taking in the vibe. Bear said “This isn’t like your usual gym, its vibe has personality.”

House music filled the space, punctuated by the clinking sound of dozens of weights being hoisted and reseated in their resting places in the open-space gym. A DJ booth overlooked the scene and the lighting was like a nightclub, with shades of deep blues and purples. The lounge’s wall was papered with iconic record covers. I spotted Changes One, A Love Supreme, Parallel Lines, Rumours, and yes, the Village People. I felt I was home in the violet cave.

Cristina came to speak with me and tell me a bit about Gym U, the ShrUmz Café lounge, and David Barton, and she introduced me to David’s executive assistant, Yana Sergeeva, who said she’d set up an interview. I gave them both my card, and then enjoyed another glass of wine, thinking about the power of now.

David Barton’s Gym Empire

A few days later, I was sitting in ShrUmz across from David Barton as he told me about his history with this spot. In 2002, he owned a chain of David Barton gyms and lived across the street at the Hotel Chelsea with his wife, Susanne Bartsch, raising their son Bailey, whose bedroom was formerly Janis Joplin’s! That was when the YMCA decided to sell and move down to West 14th Street.

He remembered, “I would look out the window and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be incredible to have a gym at the YMCA?’ One day, when the stars were aligned and the universe was smiling upon me, I got a phone call that this space would be available. Would I want to put a gym here? It was my dream.”

He moved his Chelsea gym around the corner to the YMCA location, and decided he had to rescue the YMCA sign that is prominent in the Village People video. As you can imagine, it’s not light. David recalls seeing a man put up a notice that said “Guys who carry stuff.” Fortuitous! “So me and these two large dudes carried this sign down the stairs. It’s the heaviest thing I’ve ever lifted in my life, and we put it up on the wall. I still have the painful remnants of having carried this thing in my connective tissues!”

David operated the gym at the YMCA location until he sold his chain in 2013. The West 23rd Street location was taken over by Crunch Gym, which was still operating when I came on the scene in 2017. Things swung around counter-clockwise in a semi-circle during the pandemic, and David was again offered the chance to lease the YMCA gym space.

“I wasn’t planning to go back into the business of operating gyms, but I love it, this is my neighborhood, I love this space. And I wanted to connect,” David said. He wanted to buck the trend of living an online life. “People need a place to go and have eye contact, fear of rejection, and conversation,” he said. Gym U is David’s new vision for a science-supported fitness community with his famous dance club workout vibe.

David said, “Some people might spend ten percent of their waking hours at the gym. There’s the tangible outcome someone wants from going to the gym, to help them change their body, but there’s also the subjective experience of coming here, enjoying being here and hanging out. I tried to create something so you’re part of the community.”

ShrUmz Café

To make a space for hanging out, David partnered with Bill Gilroy, co-owner of Employees Only, to develop the ShrUmz Café. It’s open to the public as well as gym rats, and features $5 wine and beer and a curated collection of smoothies. Bear told me the Barton Biceps smoothie is the most popular, and it’s easy to understand why the gym’s patrons might aspire to emulate him.

High protein post-workout snacks and freshly-cooked dishes are also available. But the special offering is performance- and health-enhancing medicinal mushrooms, available in tincture format and in the signature ShrUmz smoothie.

Gilroy’s son supplies the mushrooms from his hydroponic farm in the Hudson River Valley (Go Mushrooms and Tivoli Mushrooms). He developed an interest in ’shrooms while foraging for wild mushrooms when he worked as a personal chef for artist Brice Marden. David said, “The mushroom thing is an interesting angle for a bar in a gym. It hearkens back to the psychedelic era of mushrooms as a lifestyle.” It’s another synergistic piece of magic that makes Gym U so special.

Design Tour

David also has a passion for design, and has designed gyms in Moscow and cities in Europe. When he created the space for Gym U, he designed a row of gigantic fans encased in copper—just one of many unusual elements in the stunning multi-level space.

No detail was too small, and David tested over 100 shades of blue looking for just the right tone. David discovered avant-garde artist Yves Klein’s super-saturated, vivid ultramarine blue, which the artist patented as International Klein Blue. That was the one! And it harmonizes with the YMCA blue!

David toured me through the space and graciously took my picture by the YMCA sign. I grabbed the lightest bar on the rack and struck a pose. Doesn’t everyone work out in Dries Van Noten snakeskin platform boots?

At the end of the tour, David invited me back for a workout to experience first-hand the feeling of community that he has created at Gym U.

My Gym U Experience

The following Monday, I took him at his word and returned to the gym in workout attire. I ascended the glorious curving marble staircase that David lovingly preserved and enrobed in a hug of the aforementioned Kleinian blue. I stowed my bag in the spacious, beautifully lit locker room on the second floor. Then I took a deep breath and descended to the gym.

Honestly, I find the wide array of equipment at gyms a bit bewildering. David’s equipment is high-end, futuristic, and exquisite. But it also might be intimidating to the uninitiated! So Yana had signed me up for a couple of studio classes, and I headed to the cardio area first to do a warmup.

I found an exercise bike that was already set to my height, jumped on, and started pedaling. A gorgeous young man walked by and gestured that he loved my hair. Ah! I relaxed into feeling I belonged, and enjoyed the experience of watching Chelsea’s beautiful people working out to stay looking and feeling beautiful.

Next, I went to a 30-minute 360-degree ab workout in a remarkable disco studio. Juicy pomegranate shag carpeting on the ceiling made lying on my back a visual delight. Strip lighting under the windows changed colors at the instructor’s command. The Hotel Chelsea sign beamed through the wall of windows.

There were four other women in the class, and our instructor, Stephen Lincoln, took us on a fun journey that ended with some serious burn. I felt the after-burn about 24 hours later, and it continued to light up my core for another two days. Now that’s a good workout!

After the ab session, one of the women stayed and three men joined us for the Zen yoga class. Stephen said he’s been teaching for over 30 years. He had different variations on familiar poses, and used blocks for many poses to help support the wrists and get into better alignment. His touch when he gave me hands-on adjustments felt just right—light and non-intrusive, but confident, firm, and attuned. I loved the “dance moments” where he invited us to shake it out after holding a strength-building pose. He delivered the perfect balance of structure and freedom.

I walked out feeling high on music, color, and movement, my soul permeated by the rhythms and hues of David Barton’s world. Young man, there’s a place you can go…

The Day of the Shoot

On the day of the KQS shoot, I had to transform into The Cowboy. Much last-minute research was involved, especially with regards to applying male facial hair! Thanks to YouTube and my friend George, I learned how to attach the mustache with spirit gum and create an impressive five o’clock shadow. Major shout-out to Charli Deville for their awesome tutorial on using Ben Nye black crème makeup and a stippling sponge! Unfortunately,  I was rushed for time at the last minute, as always, and didn’t have time to trim the moustache, so it is ridiculously large!

Filming on the sidewalk in front of the gym with Phil and Amy, the song “YMCA” playing from my portable speaker, we attracted amused looks from passers-by. I tried to embody how a man would walk and dance as I replicated the Village People’s dance routine, and wished I could keep dancing forever.

Afterwards we went into ShrUmz to celebrate. I was still in character, and David didn’t recognize me when I approached him to say hi. (Success! I passed!) He came over to chat with us and shower us with his charm. Amy told him about going to one of his wife Susanne’s famous parties in the nineties (Susanne merits a separate column!). It seemed like the glories of the past imbued our fabulous present with an extra glow of wonder.

Karen in Drag — The First Time

This isn’t the first time I’ve dressed in drag and tried to pass for a man. I’ve dressed as the elusive, androgynous Bowie many times, and as Harry Potter.

But the first time I dressed as a man was for a drag party in the late nineties. A friend knew an expert manly-facial-hair-applier, who gave me a mustache and a Three Musketeers goatee. I was shocked when I looked in the mirror and saw my father. I am sure many men have had this experience, but it was completely unexpected to me. A very disorienting sort of genetic self-recognition.

How the YMCA Dance Began

Did you know the “YMCA” dance was invented on the TV show American Bandstand? Dick Clark presented the dance moves to the Village People when they performed on the show in January 1979. When the Village People shot the video in 1978, what may have appeared as the “Y” movement of the dance was actually just clapping over their heads. When Dick showed them the dance on Bandstand, lead singer and lyricist Victor Willis gamely jumped in, doing the movements along with the audience, and the dance was born.

Guinness World Record for the YMCA Dance

And just in case you think this is all ancient history, the “YMCA” song will never be/will always be history! Guinness says the world record for the “YMCA” dance was created when over 41,000 people danced while the Village People performed at the 2008 Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. The Village People may have set a new record when they performed live at Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2020, on the eve of the pandemic. That March, the Library of Congress added the “YMCA” song to the National Recording Registry, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in December 2020.

A condensed version of this article first appeared in Chelsea News and other papers in the Straus News group.

Style Notes

Putting this outfit together to replicate Randy’s cowboy costume as closely as possible involved a frenzied afternoon treasure hunt through some of my favorite vintage and secondhand haunts.

• Brown suede cowboy hat. Reminiscence, 74 Fifth Avenue. Trim from Michael’s, Sixth Avenue.
• Classic red cotton bandanna. Reminiscence.
• Old Navy black linen vest, tailored to fit at the absolute last minute by Andrea T New York. I looked in half a dozen shops but couldn’t find a black leather vest. So I chose this alternate from Crossroads Trading, 47 W. 14th Street.
• COS olive and purple plaid shirt. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I adapted a long-sleeved shirt that had a similar color palette. Buffalo Exchange, 114 W. 26th Street.
• Steer skull on black braided leather bolo tie. Crossroads Trading.
• Jesse Jeans brown leather belt with rectangular brass buckle. Crossroads Trading.
• Black handlebar mustache. Abracadabra NYC, 19 W. 21st Street.
• Jeans and boots. My own. I searched around looking for boot-cut jeans but to no avail. Just not in fashion now, and sadly, I discovered that the Levi’s Store on W. 14th Street is gone. I had my intricately stitched grey Dan Post cowboy boots from Lammle’s Western Wear in Calgary hot-wax-polished brown for the shoot. I hope the polish will come off! See West Village Hoedown for a shot of the original grey boots.